In many of the games that I have played, mortar squads seem like they are really more difficult to set up for than they are useful. There are a few spots that they are good, but that seems to be few and far between. Between the amount of ammo they burn through, and the fact that even though there are 2 mortarmen on a squad, you can only use one at a time, it seems like they could use some polish to really bring them together.
My suggestion, is to make a fortification that can be built by the engineers of the mortar squad. Similar to how the HMG is built by the MG squad. This fortification would be about 5m in radius, and include 2 parts: an ammo supply and 2 side by side mortar setup points.
The ammo for the mortars, rather than feeding in stacks out of standard ammo boxes, would be able to come out of the fortifications ammo reserves instead, which could hold an adequate amount of mortars (perhaps 40 at a time). The ammo could be restored similar to how the field gun and AA ammo is restored currently (refilled by engineer by consuming resources). The ammo reserves would be highly explosive however, where if damaged enough/ destroyed they would actually detonate, destroying the whole fortification.
The second part of the mortar nest is that if you have 2 mortarmen in your squad, both set up next to each other in the mortar nest and feed off the same ammo reserve. While the player uses the one mortarman, the other will fire shells in roughly the same location that the player is, enabling two mortars to be fired at once.
This would be helpful for a number of reasons, including effectively shelling enemy troops, being able to put out larger yet more precise smoke-screens, and even pressuring enemy vehicles that are sitting still.
Itâs still able to be countered by simply identifying and damaging the ammo reserves.
Iâd love that since i am big mortar fan, i rather doing this than to call artillery with one click. much more immersive. that would balance things out between radio and mortar squads as well which is GOOD.
Moartars are not useless, maps are too small to use them and no communication or even marking teammates exist in %99 of matches.
I wish we had proper mics not just fpr friends.
Proper communication can bring so much depth to gameplay
It still requires a teammate(s) to spot for you. I donât see how this is any more OP than the current RO squad that just clicks a point on the map and it drops. Its a system that still requires teamwork to use to full effect. In addition, it can actually be countered, unlike the RO artillery bombardment.
The process of using an engineer setting up ammo boxes, as well as jumping up to grab more with mortar user, all takes about as much time as you spend actually using the mortar. Plus it interrupts usage quite frequently. This method essentially just centralizes the ammo into a more fluid system.
Mortars are a VERY underutilized support squad. What you might see as âcampingâ I would usually see as âsupportâ. Everyone rushing the objective as an attacker isnât always a good strategy, especially with how OP White Phosphorous is right now. More troops dying to that doesnât help anyone. However, a well placed set of mortars that the team makes use of by marking large clusters of enemies, can make a BIG difference, especially in reducing the amount of incoming white phosphorus and troops.
The infantry carried mortars have a minimum distance of 50m and a maximum distance of like 263m. They are perfectly set up distance wise for the size of the map.
While to some degree, I agree that there should be more teamwork, I have noticed a wonderful little pattern: If I ask for enemy coordinates on the comms wheel, a friend or teammate marks it, I hit that point whether it be with mortars, aircraft, whatever. Other teammates see this and start to realize that if they mark enemies, they will get hit. Most games start off slow with the marking but by the end tanks are being marked regularly, as are notable areas of enemy presence. Even when I have gone in solo, it eventually works out usually.
long distance support never wins. it is great for getting loads of kills, but it will not help clearing caps. that is why support roles like snipers/mortars are bad for game objective. mortar have goal of softening objective and then rush in. getting 10 shells+40 in reserve+10 in another mortar man+ engineer resupply will give you indefinite mortar shelling
it doesnt. you can get loads of kills by shooting around the cap
and current RO is stupidly OP. specially bombing strike in open area maps⌠i can easily get 20-40 kills in moscow/pacific just by clicking bombing strike.
this game requires teamwork for anything to take full effect. normal artillery strikes would hit better if team marked from where enemy comes from. also i dont see how you would counter something ~50-100m in gray zone.
i wouldnt even be against this if engineer spent all his points on that structure and that structure couldnt be resupplied.
and cause one thing is OP, you need to make another thing OP? WP is problem in normandy, but mortars mostly wont help there cause of mostly urban maps, pacific and tunisia and it wont help there cause of big maps, so there is not much clustering of troops. and even if they cluster, unless you aim cap zone, you will probably miss even with spotting cause people just move towards cap.
Let our mortar squad mate to shoot somewhere near to where we shoot first, perhaps this would work better, i wouldnât mind OPs idea though (to be tested at least).
Snipers, Mortars, Planes, Tanks, Field Gun, even an AT soldier in the right circumstances. The only tricky part is identifying where they are located exactly, after which they would be essentially sitting on a bomb, you just have to trigger it.
Look man, not everyone gets their kicks from running into an objective with a flamethrower or SMG in their hand. There are those of us that enjoy filling support roles. That doesnât mean we are playing in a worthless manner. Mortars are great for softening an objective, dropping smoke cover for teammates, thinning out reinforcements, dealing with hard to reach rally points, dealing with emplaced guns (MG, HMG, field gun, AA, etc), eliminating some snipers, blocking sniper views with smoke, can damage or even kill some tanks, etc.
SUPPORT ROLES ARE VALID
They are there to SUPPORT the assault infantry, which by the sound of it is what you like to play. Iâm sure the game gets pretty boring when nobody is helping drop rally points, ammo boxes, killing tanks and HMGs, right? Well guess what, a lot of those things fall under what support players are for.
Iâm not saying it would be cheap to put up.
An HMG nest costs 12 resource points to put up. Iâd value this Mortar nest at maybe 14.
Each 10 mortar shells restored would cost 1 resource point to refill.
40 shells means 4 points per full reload.
If 2 shells are being fired at a time, 40 shells will go by very quickly.
Even with 2 engineers in the squad that can get very costly, very quickly.
Its not mobile, so if the objective moves, you would need to as well. Breaking the structures down only yield 50% resource returns. Which means only 7 resource points would be gotten back.
You canât switch squads just to refill the ammo, because then you would lose your mortars.
Ultimately, unless a friendly teammate comes to resupply you, you arenât going to last as long as you might be thinking. Which if a teammate comes to resupply you, you are probably helping out the team substantially.
mortar is indirect fire and can be behind hill/house, while all others need to be in line of sight. mortar cant be countered if you hide in hole or behind hill deep in gray zone.
while it can be fun to get tons of kills, it is after all worthless. game only cares about if cap is taken or not. planes, tanks, snipers can soften target all they want, but it gets 0 in capture points.
you wont be dealing with those rally points with mortar. they will be either in building or behind cover so your teammates cant mark it.
you know what can drop smoke for teammates? smoke grenades. better and more precise way to smoke. also RO has better smoke arty than mortar.
absolutely useless if it is against defenders cause infinite tickets and reinforcement every 10 seconds.
only if they are in open and marked. and with current teams⌠having them mark somethingâŚ
easier to either counter snipe, or just shoot him with rifle. with kill cams no snipers can hide for long.
they are valid as long as they rush into cap. and that is the way mortars now work. spent your ammo and you need to go into cap.
and you can have 27 points as engineer? that would mean 40(14 points)+130(13x1)+10+10= 190 mortar shells with one engineer. and you can take shooting about ~3 seconds per shell, so that would mean 9.5 minutes of non stop shelling with one mortar, or ~5 minutes with 2 mortars. and that is if nobody resupplies you. ffs do you even know what 5-10 minutes of non stop HE spam on cap point can represent? fuck game balance right?
I have a better idea, the mortarman squad gets removed or merged with the radio operator squad, we have less BS explosive spam from the distance with 0 skill and literally playing a whole different game than the ones playing the objective
oh, personally - playing mortarman requires far more skill than regular CQC. Because you need to predict enemy position instead of running in and just shoot. Also, it actually penaltize you for doing it wrong since you just wasted your time in which you couldâve just go into cap.
i remember playing BF2 there was like these cannons and radio station you couldâve destroy, it was nice addition since planes could prioritize other things apart from bombing infantry/tanks. Iâd love to see something like this in enlisted, it wouldâve been just great to balance out the RO squad and also would perfectly fit for enlisted âtacticalâ dimension.
RO is just too strong with the ability to just look at a map and call in a barrage of explosives that are much stronger than mortars.
Iâve even had the issue where I am hit inside of buildings, just because I was too close to the windows. Mortars donât have that.
Mortars are also at the disadvantage if your spotterâs view gets blocked by smoke, whereas RO artillery is solely based on the map. Nothing is stopping you from firing except cooldown time.
Mortars have to have access to the sky, plus some distance in front of them to launch their shots. Meanwhile, RO can be sitting in a bunker somewhere, and still able to call in strikes.
Mortars are restricted by ammunition. Again, RO are only restricted by time.
i for one think a good sniper/spotter hybrid is extremely useful member of the team. they are basically your guardian angel until they get counter sniped
also using mortar is ridiculously hard, you have to be patient. patient! and you either need to trust in your guts and mark the map yourself (you guys know you can do that right? not talking the mark enemy thing), or trust in your team mates to give reliable markings.
i respect the dedication (or maybe foolishness?) of mortar players.
also, calling âsupport playersâ useless is a tad too harsh. whatâs next? engineer is useless? theyâre a bunch of support players too you know. whatâs that? a sniper that can see far away, snipe properly, and mark shit is useless too? aight then.
whatâs next? any team thatâs not full assault soldier and 3 grenade lobbing badass is useless too? if they arenât build or played to run into the funny circle theyâre useless? if theyâre built only to hang somewhere and clear the zone theyâre bad? plane bad then? tank bad too? because they canât cap and if they tried, they get blown up because theyâre too forward.
that said, relating to the OP, i think it would be wonderful if you have 2 mortarmen, you can set up to only fire one mortar at a time or have both firing at the same time at the same (general) location. that would be funny i guess. not sure on the mortar nest though.
For me, the current system for setting up ammo boxes, switching back and forth between characters, and with a bunch of what appear to be crates of bullets restoring mortars seems awfully radicicolous. Especially when it comes to trying to use both mortars at once.
I think DF should make more different markers instead of simple red triangle arrows.
For example, I could place shell shaped markers on enemy reinforcement routes so that teammates know that fire support is needed here. Or enemy infantry markers so I can alert my teammates that an enemy is trying to outflank us. Now, most of the time I press the V button just to alert my AI soldiers to fire in that direction.
